Little Red Schoolhouse At The Center Of Legal Storm

August 09, 1985|By Charles Mount.

Chicago`s little red schoolhouse in Forest Glen on the Northwest Side, though closed for several years, has become the focus of a $330,000 battle between the Board of Education and the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

The school board wants to sell the 1.6-acre site at 4910 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. for up to $330,000. The forest preserve sued Thursday to acquire the site free.

The school board acquired the site from the forest preserve in 1947 for $7,000.

Greg Kinczewski, chief forest district attorney, contended that the district should get the site free because it never gave up title to the property. He said it just released the land to the Board of Education for a school with the understanding that the land would revert to the district if a school were no longer operated there.

Kinczewski is seeking a court ruling that the forest preserve has title to the land and the building and can take control of both.

The school board sees things differently.

It contends that it got title to the land with no strings attached in 1947 after condemnation proceedings. The board says it can dispose of the property as it sees fit.

The site, next to the Caldwell Woods Forest Preserve, is in a desirable residential area. Appraisers hired by the school board have valued it at $300,000 to $330,000, court documents said.

``It`s a nice piece of property,`` Kinczewski said.

The school board acquired the land two years after World War II ended, during the baby boom. Young parents were on the move--to the suburbs and suburban-like enclaves of Chicago such as Forest Glen.

It is a fairly isolated neighborhood, bounded on three sides by forest preserves, the North Branch of the Chicago River and the Milwaukee Road tracks. The construction of the Edens Expressway since has isolated the area more.

An influx of residents and the area`s isolation is why the school board wanted a school there. The little red schoolhouse went up in 1949 and for about 35 years was the city`s most rustic and picturesque public school. It was called the Forest Glen Branch of Farnsworth Elementary School.

Enrollment never was high. In 1970, it was 55. By 1981 it had dropped to 19 in kindergarten and 1st, 2d and 3d grades. After 3d grade, pupils attended Farnsworth, 5414 N. Linder Ave., or Beaubien Elementary School, 5025 N. Laramie Ave. They had to cross busy streets to get to either school.

That`s why Forest Glen residents fought throughout the 1970s to keep the school open. When the school system faced serious financial problems in the 1980s, the school closed.

Kinczewski said that if the forest preserve gets the property back, the school building will be retained as an office or for nature studies and cultural purposes.

In a July 10 letter to the forest preserve district, the school board said it has no use for the site and is ready to sell it to whomever meets the price.

According to critics, making hardheaded real estate deals would be new for the school board. In 1982, it sold the land under Midway Airport to Chicago for $16 million and was criticized for charging too little. The board also has been criticized for charging below-market rents for leased property.